A Presto!

Ciao Roma!

Our last morning in Rome, and in Europe.

We rode to the airport in a taxi with the windows down, Italian pop blaring on the radio, threading through the heart of the city past the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Aurelian Walls and Circus Maximus. It was an entirely unplanned farewell tour, and it was perfect.

And just like that, the Festival of Fifty comes to a close.

Is it frivolous? Perhaps, on paper. But we are acutely aware that we live a privileged life, and we take none of it for granted. Firmly in the second half of our lives now, the sense that time is finite and genuinely precious is harder to ignore. We can't take anything material with us in the end — so we committed, instead, to memories and to the people we make them with. This trip delivered both in abundance.

Today we begin the long journey home. Barring disasters, we'll leave it right here.

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For the detail-oriented reader: a taxi from central Rome to Fiumicino is a flat €55 and runs 30 to 40 minutes. Airport security was swift — five minutes, with the new machines that mercifully allow everything to stay in your bag. The dreaded EES at Fiumicino on a Sunday morning, queue joined at 9:10am, took thirty minutes despite looking considerably worse. It kept moving. There is hope.

The gorgeous breakfast room

I've never had a fountain with my breakfast!

A few reminders that you are in Italy

Nutella

 

A Roman Sojourn

Is it a capuccino? No! It was a savoury dish made of pork, potato and cod! Yes it played with the time but tasted fantastic!

Happy to report that disembarking at Bari was a dream. Cabins were available until 10am, breakfast ran at the usual time, and suitcases only needed to be out 45 minutes before collection — after which they appeared, as if by magic, on the pier. No fuss, no overnight luggage anxiety, no queuing in corridors waiting. A model disembarkation.

What we didn't realise until too late was that we could have stayed for lunch, stowed our bags on board and explored Bari before returning to collect them. A genuinely fantastic service — and one that would have been considerably more useful had it been, at any point, communicated clearly. Finding information about anything on this cruise, it must be said, required more effort than it should have.

Walking off was exactly that, walking off. No checks, no queues, nothing. A taxi was called for us and we were at Bari Centrale by 9:45am, which was earlier than expected and left us sitting on a shaded platform bench in what was already, at that hour, a genuinely aggressive heat.

The train to Rome was, unfortunately, well populated with Australians. Travelling with children. In first class. The noise levels were considerable, the suitcases were enormous and strategically positioned to block carriage entry, and we had to walk around to the other side to board. We survived four hours. Barely.

What we almost didn't survive was the 300 metres from Roma Termini to our hotel. Thirty-four degrees, no shade, full sun. By the time we checked in, we were comprehensively drenched. Any plans involving shopping had melted, quite literally, somewhere on the cobblestones outside the station.

Our brief overnight in Rome was sponsored by Amex. We had travel and dining credits to fund our stay as well as an evening at All'Oro, a Michelin-starred restaurant a short taxi ride away from the hotel. The meal was a playful, elegant take on Italian classics — exactly the right way to mark the end of a very good trip.

Docked at Bari

Bari Centrale. So grateful for seats and shade

Hurray for freebies?!

Our very minimalist room in Hotel Palazzo Montemartini, funky interiors in an old building

Bathroom

Restaurant All'Oro

From the Mountain to the Sea

Not a bad view from our dinner table. Piazza San Marco and the Doges Palace

The fab four had one last breakfast together before parting ways.

Our private transfer to Venice dropped Richard and Ali first at the airport for their London flight — Wimbledon awaited — before continuing on to the Venice Passenger Terminal with Mal and me. Our driver deserves a mention: the physical likeness of a grey, chubby Mario, but with the vocal energy of someone entirely German. Loud, affable, and excellent company.

This was an unexpected find in a Italian motorway rest stop. And it cost 35 euros!

Yummy cold coffee

Goodbye mountains! Even the rest stops were scenic

The transfer was comfortable and spacious

We arrived at the cruise terminal at 1:45pm to find it virtually empty. We were whisked aboard Club Med 2 with enough time to catch the tail end of lunch — which closed at 2pm — and just like that, the Dolomites were behind us and the Adriatic was ahead.

Club Med 2 is something of a legend in sailing circles. Launched in 1992, she is one of the world's largest sailing ships — a five-masted computer-controlled staysail schooner stretching 187 metres, carrying around 390 passengers with a crew of 220. We were on a seven-night voyage from Venice through the Croatian coast and into Montenegro, with stops at Cres, Krk, Vis, Dubrovnik, Mljet and Kotor before finishing in Bari. On paper, it sounded rather wonderful.

First impressions, in all honesty, were mixed. The yacht was not quite what the marketing photography had led me to expect. Better described as stylish than luxurious: older, but well-maintained, well-equipped, and decorated in a classy, relaxed French nautical aesthetic. Our cabin was the cheapest available and, to its credit, had genuinely clever and ample storage. First world problems duly noted.

The other adjustment was cultural. After a week of Italian warmth, the atmosphere aboard was markedly French — VERY French — hardly surprising given that approximately 95% of passengers were French-speaking. The staff, although collectively initially came across as aloof, were individually friendly. Some parts of the muster drill, for reasons best known to the organisers, were concluded entirely in French. One young officer, unprompted, translated the relevant parts for us — a small gesture, but a kind one. Meals and activities ran late across the board, which is worth knowing if you're an early riser or an early diner. And there was smokers everywhere...an asthmatic's worst nightmare.

The food, as one might hope from the French, was excellent — very much in the tradition of Club Med's ski resorts. The coffee, however, was terrible. 

For now, we would give it a chance and reserve judgement.

The Club Med 2 yacht

Some of the public spaces

Cozy and comfortable

Lots of space

Never hard to find an empty seat

Pools were small. There were 2 seawater pools

Gym was not bad for a small ship. We never saw anyone else in there

Our small but comfortable cabin

We were on the lowest passenger deck so only port holes for us!

Dresser

Bathroom

Toilet to one side

Shower to the right

Lots of storage

Bracelet which also acts as a key to the cabin

We made it just in time for lunch

Afternoon tea

The iced coffee was terrible...

Goodbye Venice!

Dining room was elegant. This was the Monte Carlo

Butter makes everything better

One of the best fish soups I've had

Veal rump

Strawberry and mascarpone

Sailing out of Venice

Magical with the sun setting